Monthly Archives: April 2016

This evening I sat down for an interview with the most delightful personality in politics, Frank the Frog.

Frank reposes at the study window.

Mr. Frog disclosed a great deal of his aspirations and campaign platform to me. I will post either a transcript or a dissection (oops, sorry Frank) in the near future. Rest assured this composed gentlefrog makes more sense than anything who might have heard from the alleged “front-runners”. Here is but a glimpse of the ingenious insights and plans Frog has for our nation:

The Economy: Frank says, “The fly industry is suffering. Frogs…people are suffering. We need more flies.”

Immigration: Says Frog, “[They] come to America for flies. Like moths to a flame – except it is with flies.”

Terrorism: Frog declared, forcefully, “We will defeat the Serpentine Peril! … We will make this a safer, more be-flied world.”

The new Twenty Dollar Bill: “Why not a green face for a greenback? Why not Kermit?”

The Election: Pondered Frank, almost to himself, “You’re going to waste your vote. Waste it on me.”

I truly wish I had time to bring you more now but you will have something to look forward to! Prepare to forget all about Hrump or Trillary or whoever.

Frog humbled me with a special request. He wants me to help him complete and publish his manifesto, Frankly Speaking. Turns out he is too small to properly operate a keyboard. We laughed. To say I am honored would be an understatement.

Stay tuned to this miraculous development in an otherwise dead-as-usual election cycle.

The other day I was somewhere. Some folks were talking politics. One man said, in a slow Southern drawl, “If we elect the wrong president, the country is finished.” I immediately thought to myself: “You will and it is.” The last best chance to revive the corpse of the old America we knew was to elect Ron Paul in 2008 (not 2012, too late). Now it is beyond too late – the finishing has begun.

You will. Google.

I didn’t listen to Trump’s America First speech but I did glance at the transcript. I made it as far as “rebuild the military” and “Israel, our great….” them something Islamic. The man does say the right thing sometimes, all politicians do from time to time. The little I read, based on my experience, means little more than more of the same. The problem is things are not the same. These are new times. Things are unfolding at home and abroad that no president can cure.

The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), a.k.a. The Nation’s Report Card, is out for 2015. The new results are as bad as any of recent years and many a little worse. American government school 12th graders made no improvements in reading and dropped two points in math since 2013. The Assessment also shows the 12th graders are down two points in college readiness – only 37% possess the proficiency necessary for college, down from 39%. Read more here.

Google.

This comes after decades and decades of government “reforms” in education. The people at the NAEP, the U.S. Department of Education, and others are dying to know why the reforms aren’t working.

The answer is simple: they are. They are doing exactly what they were designed to do. They are engines providing countless jobs for people with no interest or ability to educate the young and they are wasting money as through after-burners. They have also succeeded in dumbing down our children or a large part of them.

If one is interested in helping children learn one needs to dispense with the ideas of school reform and with compulsory education. Bright students will learn regardless. Others, not so bright, will not learn beyond a base level no matter how much money and how many educrats are thrown at them. The majority in the middle need a little push to help them go as far as they will. Our schools cannot provide anything to help any of these groups. The schools should be abolished.

Freedom from a doomed system is why home schoolers and independent learners consistently score off the charts in all categories. The proof of the doomed part is exhibited every time a national report card comes out. Watch; in another two years these trends will continue unabated, regardless of current or future reforms. It will continue until the system is abolished or disintegrates under its own weighty mediocrity. If your child is one of the bright learners, he will succeed no matter what. The other groups will continue to lose ground. All would benefit from real education and real freedom.

Forget the bullsh!t of Trump and Clinton. Forget terrorism and the economy for a bit. Here is the feel-good story of the day! A federal judge, Thomas M. Durkin, took a rare opportunity to use his office and power for the good of the free and formerly oppressed people. God bless the man.

CHICAGO (AP) — Dennis Hastert, the Republican who for eight years presided over the House and was second in the line of succession to the presidency, was sentenced Wednesday to more than a year in prison in the hush-money case that included accusations he sexually abused teenagers while coaching high school wrestling.

Judge Thomas M. Durkin also ordered Hastert to undergo sex-offender treatment, spend two years on supervised release after 15 months behind bars and pay a $250,000 fine to a crime victims’ fund.

In explaining his punishment, the judge called Hastert a “serial child molester” and described as “unconscionable” his attempt to accuse one of the victims of extortion.

Hastert becomes one of the highest-ranking politicians in American history to be sentenced to prison. He pleaded guilty last fall to violating banking law as he sought to pay $3.5 million to someone referred to in court papers only as Individual A to keep the sex abuse secret.

Earlier in the hearing, a former athlete who said he was molested by Hastert decades ago told the courtroom that he was “devastated” by the abuse.

This sentence is vindication for Hastert’s real and long-suffering victims, the young men he molested. Fifteen months do not seen nearly enough for child molestation but, under these circumstances, it is as stiff a sentence as possible (no, I did not run numbers through the federal guidelines – going gut and by experience).

Hastert plead guilty to banking irregularities and was sentenced under the laws he once rammed through Congress. Judge Durkin though concentrated his discretionary authority on the underlying (underlying but all but admitted) crimes against the then children Denny molested. His insistence on rehabilitation and restitution are huge. They perhaps could serve as the basis for an appeal under the theory Durkin exceeded the scope of his proceedings. However, because Denny entered a plea the odds of a successful appeal are slim. My guess is that the demented scofflaw will slink or roll, rather (see picture), into the nearest minimum security prison camp (country club prison). If his medical claims are true he may be placed near or in a federal MCC for the duration of his sentence.

AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast.

The media seems shocked that such a formerly high-ranking official is bound for prison. I am shocked by the manner in which he is going – labeled as a “serial child molester” rather than as a bank defrauder. Like I say, every once in a while a little justice leaks out of the system. For nearly a year I dreaded this was going to be another case about money and power. Thomas Durkin managed to uphold the letter of the positive law and, more importantly, the spirit of the Natural Law. Hooray!

Warning: the subject matter de jure is downright sickening. The other day I stated that I really hate politicians. If you’ve ever met or smelled one, then you understand.

News came last week of the indictment of yet another filthy, criminal pol. It was spun in rather drab fashion I think. People are so used to this sort of thing it’s not really news anymore. Yet, and still, the people clamor for their “representatives” whenever an election comes to town. That’s proven point number one – the public is composed of voting idiots.

Dennis “Denny” Hastert was a Republican Congress-criter from Illinois. He served as the 59th Speaker of the House from 1999 until 2007. This coincided, largely, with the reign of Jorge Bush, the Dimmer.

You may recall how Hastert helped Bush double the national debt while creating new cabinet agencies and several undeclared wars – conservative stuff…

Bertolt Brecht, German poet, and Anacharsis the Scythian long before, said that (pardon my approximation) laws are like spider’s webs; they ensnare small, unwary things while larger things break through with ease. It is commentary on inequality of equal protection and application and seems a near, if imperfect, iron law of jurisprudence.

However, sometimes a larger thing, weakened by age or sin – even the old, fat spider himself – falls victim to his own weaving.

Last spring I devoted more than a few articles to the life and sordid times of former Speaker of the House Denny Hastert. It seems that, like more than a few politicians, Hastert at one time favored the illicit company of young boys. Today I find the foul beswiker back in the news.

Rick McKee, Augusta Chronicle.

As you may recall Hastert was once a high school wrestling coach who engaged in “misconduct” with at least four of his underage male charges. Years later the coach and some of his victims reached an agreement whereby he would pay them restitution by way of hush money. Not wanting to draw attention to his affairs Hastert assembled the money via small withdrawals – thereby violating the Imperial criminal laws against “structuring”.

The former Speaker and lecherous leech now faces prison time. “Former speaker Dennis Hastert will learn on Wednesday [today] whether his stunning fall from grace will also include prison time for bank fraud that he committed as part of an effort to cover up an accusation of sexually abusing a 14-year-old boy.” USA Today, April 27, 2016.

Again, I must note that Hastert is in trouble not for abusing children but for abusing arbitrary banking laws imposed by a corrupt government. That government cares little to nothing for childhood innocence; it’s concentration is ever on protecting criminal bankers and on preserving its own power. Bank fraud, they’re calling it. The real fraud is in the banking system and the government that protects the banks. In other words, the state simply isn’t worth maintaining.

A great irony in this story is that Hastert himself once championed some of the very laws he is now accused of violating. The structuring laws were allegedly enacted to make life and operations more difficult for drug dealers and terrorists. As usual the original or stated intent was immediately expanded so as to probe the private actions of anyone and everyone.

Undoubtedly Hastert deserves prison time or worse but not for imagined banking irregularities. That he has been caught in his own web is fitting. He has suffered in other ways since his indictment.

After decades of silence, his real crimes have come to light. He has been unable to finish his payments under the hush agreements and has been sued by his victims for breach of contract. He supposedly suffered a stroke – and not the kind of stroke with which this filth was once accustomed. Perhaps worst of all, Denny has witnessed the changing times. Had he waited a few years or just been born later in time, his actions would have been permissable to a large segment of the population. Without fear of payments or prison he could have carried on his “lifestyle” in the comfort of a Target restroom.

Denny’s now adult victims, some of them, will have the opportunity long denied to testify today in federal court. The prosecution needs their statements to round out the details of the structured payment violations. One would hope the underlying details behind those payments will serve as aggravating circumstances and consideration for sentencing. Otherwise, the judge will be directed by sentencing guidelines concerning the relative harmlessness of the Speaker’s fraud and his status as a first offender with no other record. A wrist slap may be in order. Today will tell.

At any rate, there is still time for Hastert to repent if he hasn’t done so already. Thereby he may avoid real punishment worse than the millstone. As much as I ridicule him, I hope this is the case. By divine authority and Natural Law, individual sins may be forgiven; government malfeasance perhaps not.

Chelsea Clinton recently spoke to a group of communists and hoplophobes in Maryland about how her dear old Mom will use the Supreme Court to bring us a definitive ruling on gun control and some good old “common sense” regulation. Common sense – like what passed for common sense security in Benghazi. It seems like the court Mom should be concentrating on is the criminal court that may try her for those emails (just kidding, she’s in the Club).

Chelsea is much more attractive than her mommy and her voice isn’t nearly as irritating. Still, she marches to a similar drum. Her remarks were based in enough callousness and condescension to make her mother proud. Said the young Clinton: “With that greasy old wop [Justice Scalia] out of the way … mommy and I can take all the guns from those dumb Bible-thumpers and tax slaves…” Her line was cut short by a wild, howling chorus of cackles and mindless, violent-sounding chants; someone screamed “Allah Akbar!” See and hear for yourself.

Elsewhere, other fascists praised the actions of the territorial government of the Northern Mariana Islands and its institution of a $1,000 per item tax on gun sales. The Islands are one of those American territories that are only so that the natives may collect entitlement payments and people like Governor Ralph Torres can have jobs and a non-straw house to live in. I support independence for the Islands! As a free state they could enact whatever laws they choose. Gun control, cannibalism, anything they like. Our problem is that they want their law to be a model for the 50 States and other jurisdictions.

Chelsea’s Mom once supported a similar tax scheme. Maybe that’s the common sense definition she wants. The idea is that even if Herr Hillary’s Court can’t ban guns, the guns can be taxed out of the reach of most “ordinary” people. By the way, I’ve heard these islanders were the inspiration for the various headhunters on Gilligan’s Island.

Another Second Amendment end-around is to make financial transactions impossible for gun dealers and manufacturers. The Department of Justice [SIC] has a lovely program called Operation Choke Point. It is designed to make it rather difficult for risky or criminal enterprises to do banking business through the Federal Reserve’s risky, criminal organized banking business. The DOJ increasingly wants to lump gun makers into the same category with drug dealers, cartels (NOT to include the Fed), the mafia, and certain terrorist groups. They also want to include cigar companies. I’m sure military armament companies will have no problems cashing our tax checks and the State Department and CIA will keep bringing in those Cubans to give as gifts to the MIC reps at the trade shows (seen it myself). The rest of us be damned; Mommy knows best.

As is today, one doesn’t even need a gun to run afoul of the anti-freedom nut cases. A college student in south Alabama got in trouble with the campus rent-a-cop for wearing an empty holster during a political protest. The raincoat clad storm trooper even admitted the student did not violate any laws or rules but still cited him for causing a disturbance and threatened administrative action from the school. In south Alabama! Free people in Chicago and Boston are doomed.

Next door in Georgia we’re still waiting to see if Nathan “Captain Cave-in” Deal will sign or veto the State’s campus carry law. No word yet. No speculation either about the status of empty, as opposed to full, holsters in the Peach State. Peachy, Nathan, just peachy.

Now the good news. Some parts of America still somewhat resemble America regarding gun rights. Mississippi’s Governor just signed into law state-wide permitless carry of firearms. That means you’re free to be free. Mississippi joins a growing number of such unrestricted jurisdictions. These places tend to have lower crime rates than locales infected with that “common sense” nonsense. If you want safety and sanity, it may be time to move to a place where people are free to be free. Leave the rest of the continent to the cacklers and the headhunters. Or, molon labe!

Today news comes of a revenge 184 years in the making, a revenge that could only happen in post-American America. Treasury Secretary Jacob J. Lew has tentatively announced that Harriet Tubman will replace former President Andrew Jackson on the Twenty Dollar Bill as early as 2020. Lew made the decision after shock followed his previous proposal to knock Alexander Hamilton off the Ten Dollar Bill in favor of a woman.

Hamilton is safe thanks to a new hip hop Broadway musical. (Yes, post-American America.) However, he will likely be joined on the new $Ten by one or more famous American ladies. Might I recommend Bonnie Parker. Rumor has it Jackson will be relegated to a supporting role on the back of the new $20. Maybe they will feature a picture of his tombstone.

So, how is this revenge? History, my friends, history. In 1816 there was created the Second National Bank of the United States in Philadelphia. It was a private corporation set up, in violation of Article One of the Constitution, in order to expand government debt and power while simultaneously enriching the already wealthy. It was modeled after the failed First National Bank and in keeping with the central banking cabal theories of Alexander Hamilton. Is all this starting to make sense?

Earlier Congresses, while happy to illegally trade away their authority for easy money, were still more prone to banking oversight and regulation than their modern contemporaries. The Second Bank was not a complete sell-out. It was, however, ruinous to the larger economy the way central banks tend to be. It died a veto’s death in 1832 on the watch of ardent central bankstering opponent Andrew Jackson. Jackson, a blunt man, accurately condemned the Second Bank: “You are a den of vipers and thieves. I intend to rout you out, and by the Eternal God, I will rout you out.” And rout them out he did.

So long, old man. Slate/google.

Money returned to being real money for a time. Congress set the value in gold and silver and notes were issued and held by various state and federally chartered banks. This period corresponded with the most robust economic growth in American history. Only once, during Abraham Lincoln’s war, was the gold standard suspended – among many other illegalities. Most Americans, those not killed in the government’s wars, prospered. Times were good. Slaves were freed. And so on. Still unscrupulous politicians were constrained by fiscal reality and a certain small sect of leeches lost decades worth of influence and domination. Both of these maniacal parties returned to splendor when central banking made a comeback in 1913 with the passage of the Federal Reserve Act.

The Federal Reserve brought happy days back again – for them, not us. The people have only reaped two depressions (with another looming), the financial crisis, the S&L crisis, junk bonds, bailouts, the constant cycle of smaller recessions, blossoming federal debt, spending and power, crushing private debts, the collapse of purchasing power, inflation, wars, wars, and more wars, one idiotic government program after another, the end of the gold standard, the confiscation of gold, the theft of gold, and the near total evisceration of monetary value. Hooray!

All of these calamities were foreseen by Jackson. By vetoing the Second Bank he set the Hamiltonians (almost as cult-like as the Lincoln lovers) and the Rothschilds back by almost a century. In truth they had their revenge in 1913 at Jekyll Island, Georgia. Keeping Hamilton while ditching Jackson from the fiat currency is merely icing on the cake. Given the degeneration of America in post-American times, that icing must be particularly sweet.

Kari Winter is the director of the University [SIC] of Buffalo’s Institute for Gender. (Again, no need for colleges anymore). “Dedicated to advancing women’s and LGBTQ leadership, vision, and influence, the Gender Institute fosters workspaces in which each participant is stimulated to reach her/his highest potential and to increase knowledge and justice within the university, within their disciplines, and in society at large.” University [SIC] of Buffalo website.

Ms. (Mr.?) (It???) Winter praised leech Lew’s announcement as follows: “[Hamilton] is fully appropriate to be on American currency, whereas Jackson was a scoundrel, a slave holder and a white supremacist who was involved in the removal of Indians and was completely opposed to paper money and was horrible to women…” Her Institute is dedicated to knowledge, remember.

Yes, Jackson may have been a scoundrel – a temperamental man prone to violence and dueling. Then again, Hamilton dueled as well; he just wasn’t as good at it as Jackson. Jackson was a slave owner, true. George Washington was but they don’t seek his removal from the $1 Bill just yet. Jackson did remove forcibly many Indians. So did Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln is secure on the $5 Bill; I’m sure Ms. (????) Winter agrees. Lincoln never adopted two Indians as his own children as the racist Jackson did – such a white supremacist. Horrible to women? Lincoln made widows and vagabonds out of hundreds of thousands of women. Jackson fought to save women (and men) from economic destruction. Jackson also defended his wife from the lowbrow political attacks of his rivals – that violent temper at work.

It really all comes down to the paper money, to Jackson’s atavistic hatred of the evils of central banking. In a way it is fitting that Jackson should be removed from our worthless, private corporation-issued currency. By the way, whatever Lew decides on the matter, the Federal Reserve has the final say. In a world where mobsters run the economy and the government, where popularity and history are in the keeping of rappers and teenagers, and where a University [SIC] seeks to advance LGBLT (or is it LGBBQ?) influence, a man like Jackson is a misfit.

Government and religion go together like whiskey and water: they don’t really go together but one finds them paired frequently nonetheless. In 1988-89 Salman Rushdie found out in extreme fashion how the two strange bedfellows behave. His novel The Satanic Verses earned him critical acclaim along with a death sentence from the Ayatollah of Iran. Rushdie resumed normal life after years and years of living as a shadow under heavy police protection.

Iran is and was a theocracy where Shia Islamic law is the basis for the organized state. There are other nations of a similar composition. Rushdie’s England is a mix-up writ large – the Queen is the head of state and head of the state church though Parliament passes most laws in an otherwise secular society. America had, via the First Amendment, and by its history and constituency, a separation of church and state (so said Thomas Jefferson). Of course, 200 years before Rushdie’s troubles began, almost all Americans were Christians. Because the government was so very small it did not really matter who believed what. It was a Christian society with a small and separate governing group. As far as it goes or went, the arrangement worked rather well. Things change.

Gradually the people abandoned God while the government grew in power and influence. Today one finds the polar opposite of that scene of 1789. It is a government society with a small and dwindling Christian group. My hypothesis (still only that because I have not declared it law) is that the people have replaced, or have allowed the replacement of, God with government. This was not a wise decision. The consequences manifest far and wide. God, for the most part, has left the building. With Him He took morality, decency, common sense, curiosity, courage, the family unit, good television, and most of the Blessings of the Holy Spirit. Those who remain faithful are like oases in a bleak, barren and dismal landscape. Many remain also who are positive in their thinking that things can be repaired, that the government (so different today) can still be restored and that decent civilization will then resume. Their struggle is born both of true optimistic faith and of delusional confusion, sometimes blended together.

In no other realm of American life is this struggle more prominently displayed than in politics. Political activity today, be it Republican, Democratic, or of third-party nature, is a study in obsessive self defeat. One may choose to shovel water into the canoe with the big red bucket on the starboard or the big blue bucket on the port side. One may choose the small paper cup of Libertarianism back aft. Whatever the choice, the result is still the same – the boat is sinking. What amazes this author is the zeal with which people these days participate in the flooding even as they know where the vessel is headed.

Recently I wrote several pieces on the sham democracy and fake electoral practices attendant to the Republican presidential nomination process. GOP voters in Colorado, Wyoming, Georgia, New York and elsewhere are discovering the rude truth, that they do not matter – not to their party and not in the grand scheme of politics. I tire of these stories both because they serve little epistemological purpose and because there are just too many of them to track. The Democrats have a similar level of disdain for their voters and of crooked processes.

A few years ago Jimmy Carter (my remembrance grows fonder every time I think of him) proposed that the U.N. or some other neutral outside party step in to monitor American elections as those of third world countries are policed. His suggestion came in response to the staggering fact that, like, just like those “lesser” nations, America and its elections have fallen into a pit of fraud, deception and criminality. I applaud his honesty though I see the point as futile. The government and its gangster parties know they are debased, criminal; they will not accept possible interference with their game (and no one has either the power or the interest to force compliance). And, even if the pleas for help were heard, I do not relish what might come of it. I see it as running to Br’er Bear to complain about Br’er Wolf. Come what may, Br’er Rabbit and friends had still better watch their backs. A safer alternative would be to get rid of the underlying corruption of the state, that is to say, get rid of the state itself. That also will not happen, not yet. It’s not quite time.

And it seems time is relative to the problem. Government has, since its inception, been corrupt. It is eternally dangerous. The American experience does not defy the universal trend. Those in and around the government are generally corrupt themselves. Consider this example: there is and has been for some time a literal cult of Abraham Lincoln worshipers in this county. Lincoln is revered as nearly the second coming of Jesus Christ though, in truth, Lincoln was one of the vilest, most destructive, and tyrannical men to ever occupy the Presidency. It was he who set into motion that transformation which gave us today’s superstate under which we labor daily. Lincoln was a destroyer of freedom and civility like few others in history.

In 1862 he murdered 38 or 39 Sioux Indians in Minnesota. The next year he kicked the entire tribe out of the state, off of their ancestral lands under threat of death. The real story, of total war, fanatical racism, cronyism and kickbacks, and a complete absence of due process, may be read here. The sanitized, Lincoln-as-hero, version may be read here. Evil grows like a cancer, even after 150 years. And, remember, in 1862 America was much more of a “Christian” nation than what passes today.

As we begin the final act of our Platonic (not in the friendly sense) play, enter a new and ultimate character – long hinted at but not seen outright until now – actual in the open Satanism. On their respective islands in the great sea of decadence and pollution the Faithful now face their enemy. The enemy is demanding and getting equal time, more than equal to be honest. There sad and dangerous story is found here: Can a burgeoning satanic movement actually effect political change?, The Conversation, April 19, 2016. The story centers on the efforts of The Satanic Temple to compass the ruin of our people under the guise of “equality”. I do not directly link to the Temple nor to their Sabbat Cycle and I suggest you, dear reader, refrain from clicking those links from my citation story. This group is pure and utter filth, worse than filth.

The Temple and its Cycle are touring America promoting Lucifer alongside some lame horror movie. Garbage and flies, you know. It is little wonder these pathetic beings seek to join the political fray. They are already come too late unless their true purpose is to clearly advertise what has been forging for decades.

America has fallen or is falling now. Our government, state and federal, our financial system, nearly the whole economy, our political parties, our military, and our buraeucracy is under the sway of Satanic control. It is, all of it, firmly under the power of a small oligarchy of very evil people who serve only themselves and the Devil. Larger society is besieged as well. The pop trash one listens to, the violent, thoughtless movies one sees, the mindless television drug one ingests are all in the service of darkness. Our wars are fought and contrived based on lies alone. What passes for education is largely mere systemic propaganda. Families are falling apart. The people are crude, rude, and at each other’s throats for no reason. Civilization teeters on the brink of annihilation, The individual body, a temple of the Lord, is disrespected, desecrated with blubber, tattoos, intoxication and all manner of uncleanliness. The mind is debased with willful idiocy.

I fear there is no reforming this too-far-gone system. The Faithful must free themselves from its Hellish shackles. They must resist until they are either delivered or they outlast the corruption and destruction. As they are faithful, so they should be free. Freedom starts with knowledge. Know that there is no hope within the camp of one’s enemies, only without. Leave the false god and its Dark Master behind. Be free. Be Faithful.

This review follows on the heels of last week’s take on the Nestor Miranda Collection Marduro. Today I picked out a lovely Gordo Habano. I visited the tobacconist shortly after one of my most intense workouts in a very long time. No need to wait til tomorrow to be sore – I felt it in the gym… Even my taste buds were tired so I retreated to the house for several hours of rest, protein, water and pain pills. Post recovery I engaged the Habano.

Like what I did with the shrub there?

As one can see from my picture the Habano is flawlessly constructed (a few small veins near the cap). It is less oily and lighter in hue than its cousin. The burn and smoke is perfect. The ash is tight and light gray and holds beyond an inch with ease. The binder and wrapper are both Nicaraguan while the insides are Honduran, Nicaraguan, and Brazilian. The draw and burn are perfect.

This beauty is, to me, a tad milder than the Maduro – medium bodied and smoother. It has a hint of the earthiness but with a more woody (good like cedar) overtone. There is still a good deal of pepper though not to the point of being “spicy”.

Despite lacking any native elements the Habano exudes a more … island-like experience. Think of it as a slightly more relaxed or refined smoke – an educated tough guy, if you will.

While I remain partial to the Maduro I would definitely recommend this stick to anyone, especially those who occasionally depart their mild haunts for a little excitement. Nestor does it again. Two lighters up.